Gothic.net Community - View Single Post - Police `torture' videos cause uproar in Mexico

CptSternn · 07-02-2008, 12:24 AM

Aahhh...America - looks like one of its largest export industries is torture. First the government said we don't torture, then redefined torture, and now the same contractors who are torturing, but not torturing because they changed the definition are training Mexican police in these methods in cross-border efforts to combat normal everyday crime.

I wonder how long until America see their local police using these methods being used to extract information about who spray painted graffiti on the local school? I mean, according to the US government these methods are not 'technically' torture, because they don't, and I quote, 'cause pain equal to that of organ failure'.

So if they are not torture and they are being used by the US in combat theaters around the world and the same companies are teaching them to police in other countries, why would the American police not use these techniques?

Tis just a matter of time I would say. This is the proverbial 'slippery slope' of which I and many others refer to when talking about this very subject, and other human rights abuses. It starts with them using extreme techniques in extreme situations, then slowly over the course of years people become desensitized to the practice, and the government then uses it in less extreme cases until you end up with techniques being used on the average citizen for petty crimes. When that happens, due to the gradual path they took to get there, the average citizen doesn't protest.

This is what happened in Russia after Lenin. This is what happened in China after Mao. This is what happened in every regime in history that has a poor civil rights record and to any country that allows torture.

07-02-2008, 12:24 AM	#2
CptSternn Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 4,587	Aahhh...America - looks like one of its largest export industries is torture. First the government said we don't torture, then redefined torture, and now the same contractors who are torturing, but not torturing because they changed the definition are training Mexican police in these methods in cross-border efforts to combat normal everyday crime. I wonder how long until America see their local police using these methods being used to extract information about who spray painted graffiti on the local school? I mean, according to the US government these methods are not 'technically' torture, because they don't, and I quote, 'cause pain equal to that of organ failure'. So if they are not torture and they are being used by the US in combat theaters around the world and the same companies are teaching them to police in other countries, why would the American police not use these techniques? Tis just a matter of time I would say. This is the proverbial 'slippery slope' of which I and many others refer to when talking about this very subject, and other human rights abuses. It starts with them using extreme techniques in extreme situations, then slowly over the course of years people become desensitized to the practice, and the government then uses it in less extreme cases until you end up with techniques being used on the average citizen for petty crimes. When that happens, due to the gradual path they took to get there, the average citizen doesn't protest. This is what happened in Russia after Lenin. This is what happened in China after Mao. This is what happened in every regime in history that has a poor civil rights record and to any country that allows torture.